RNP > Technologies > Videoconference > Videoconference at RNP > Pilot project

Pilot project

In 2001, RNP implanted a pilot videoconference project involving its units in Rio de Janeiro, Campinas, Brasília and Recife. The project consisted of planning, implanting, testing and evaluating videoconference and video transmission tools in RNP2 backbone. The goals of the project were:

• Getting experience regarding videoconference software/hardware in order to evaluate them in terms of functionality and stability.
• Based on this experience, deriving knowledge on how to configurate such a backbone, generating subsidies to the QoS project and preparing RNP2 backbone to the traffic of interactive video.
• Spreading procedures and making technical resources available to the institutions using RNP, thus encouraging the use of videoconference by the teaching and research community.

The testing stage was concluded on November 2001. RNP's Operation Support Service organized a series of documents and programs to be made available to the community using RNP2 backbone. Among the conclusions of the project, we noticed that prioritizing the transmission of the audio and video flow in the net is essential to ensure a videoconference service of quality.

Technical Information

The pilot aimed at establishing the communication among the four RNP units simultaneously. The videoconference tests were carried out, on a preliminary basis, with PictureTel's NetConference and LiveLAN; Microsoft's Netmeeting; and applications (VIC, RAT e SDR) used in the MBone.

The resources used in the video pilot were:

• Client applications that were compatible with H.323 recommendation:
  NetMeeting and GnomeMeeting
• Configuration of the client stations:
  Compaqs Presário 7000 – Pentium III with 128 MB, 60 GB disk, USB camera, multimedia support and headset.
• Multipoint Control Unit (MCU):
  PictureTel 330 NetConference Server with support of up to 8 simultaneous connections.
• Gatekeeper:
  PictureTel LiveManager to enable, for instance, the management of the bandwidth, access control and location of gateways.

Since PictureTel is a proprietary solution restricted to Windows operational systems, we thought about the possibility of making a VRVS (Virtual Rooms Videoconferencing System) reflector available. VRVS provides interoperability of H.323, MBone, QT and MPEG2 clients and has a very friendly and easy to use Web interface. It is also a very used resource in colleges as a support tool for distance education. This system counts on the cooperation of CERN Videoconferencing and Internet2 projects, among others. VRVS was used in the tests and RNP has already made a reflector available to be used in Rio de Janeiro. Nowadays, VRVS has three reflectors available in Brazil (two in Rio de Janeiro and one in Rio Grande do Sul) , which can be used by the teaching and research community as a support tool for distance education and videoconferences in the cases in which a total consumption of bandwidth lower than 256 Kbps is sufficient.

The tests of the videoconference pilot were carried out with H.261 and H.263 video coding patterns. The video ITU-T formats used were QCIF-176x144 and CIF-352x288. For the audio G.711 and G.723.1 coding patterns were used.